Chapter 22
“Good afternoon, Ms.Kumar.”
“Malik,” Cynthia returned as she slid a takeout container—strawberry cheesecake with extra white chocolate drizzle—onto the security desk.
A grin spread over Malik’s deeply lined face when he opened the lid and saw what was inside. “You spoil me.”
“It’s our little secret.” Cynthia was about to move toward the elevator bay, but her departure was waylaid by a chorus of voices passing by her right.
“Hey, Cynthia,” Filomena from sales chirped.
“I love those shoes, girl,” Louise in accounting added.
Cynthia barely remembered to smile as several other members of the small group of junior and administrative staff from Kumar Construction echoed various greetings as they made their way past. Like her, they were obviously returning from a lunch break, but unlike Cynthia, they weren’t floored by the innocuous act of exchanging pleasantries.
Would she ever get used to it? Coworkers were stopping by her office for a quick hello, showing her pictures of milestones in their lives like the birth of a grandchild or a pet dog at a graduation ceremony from obedience classes, and inviting her out for casual after-work drinks.
Cynthia wasn’t sure what to make of the newfound attention except that it made her feel stiff and uncomfortable every time.
Even if she was tempted, she always found an excuse not to join in and often had to resist glancing over her shoulder to make sure they were indeed extending the invitation to her .
Years of coaching herself to be Cynthia, Kumar Construction All-Star, and she could barely manage to react like a human.
Yannis from sales hung back as the rest of the group headed for the elevators, his gaze fixed on the takeout container sitting in front of Malik.
“Beezley’s,” he read from the lid. “Fancy!” He tilted his chin expectantly in Cynthia’s direction. “Leftovers?”
Malik winked at Cynthia. “Dessert,” he replied for her, opening the container so Yannis could see.
“Whoa. Is that cheesecake?” Yannis’s eyebrows rose. Again, he directed the question to Cynthia, and under his stupefied gaze, she couldn’t help but take a small step back.
“Strawberry,” she confirmed in a quiet voice. Malik grinned before scooping up a huge bite.
“This one’s got a heart of gold,” Yannis said to Malik, jerking his thumb at Cynthia before he turned to catch up with his colleagues. “Who knew, right?”
Cynthia wasn’t sure if the last comment had been directed at himself, to her, or to Malik, but she shifted uncomfortably on her feet as she watched him depart into a waiting elevator.
“I knew it all along,” Malik said around a mouthful of cheesecake, oblivious to her discomfort.
Although she could feel a faint blush spreading across her cheeks, Cynthia stayed rooted to the spot as she waited for the elevator filled with Yannis’s lunch group to close and carry the staff away.
She even silently counted to fifteen, feeling foolish the entire time, before she shot Malik a parting wave and claimed her own ride up.
When she found a spot at the back of another crowded elevator—thankfully, with zero employees from Kumar Construction as far as she could tell—Cynthia wondered where Rohit was, what he was doing.
If she crossed his mind in this way, like the faint, catchy notes of a Top 40 song that nudged the recesses of one’s headspace all day.
If, like her, his heart swelled a little bit with each replay.
When the elevator doors slid open on the fourteenth floor, Cynthia instinctually backed into the corner to allow for the newcomers to enter.
As if she’d conjured him, Rohit and her father stepped in, so deep in discussion they didn’t even notice her, squeezed in the back behind three men, two in identical black suits and one food delivery guy carrying a stack of pizza boxes.
Rohit seemed preoccupied, his head bent over a thick report in his hands.
Her dad’s obliviousness came as less of a surprise.
And, for once, Cynthia had no desire to dwell on this sad, predictable fact.
She was too distracted by the broad width of Rohit’s back, the short hairs at the nape of his neck that tickled her fingers in the most delightful way.
She could practically feel her chest expanding in the confines of her structured, black shift dress as she looked at his shoulders, which, she now knew, bore the weight of so much.
He’d kept his secret this entire time. She had loathed him for the better part of their acquaintance, while having no idea of the depth of his loyalty and devotion to his family. She’d grossly overestimated the size of his ego and had been oblivious to the incredible magnitude of his heart.
“You did great in there, son,” her father said as he punched the button for Kumar Construction.
“I don’t know,” Rohit responded, tucking the report under his arm. He cracked his knuckles and Cynthia immediately knew he was nervous. “They didn’t look like they were buying into the projections.”
Rich patted Rohit on the back and Cynthia’s spine stiffened when her father’s hand lingered on Rohit’s shoulder. “Don’t underestimate yourself, you nailed it. This is going to be huge for us and I have complete faith in you leading the charge.”
“You want me to lead the project if they sign with us?” Rohit asked with disbelief, and Cynthia made a mental note to check the building directory to see who occupied the fourteenth floor.
“You’re more than ready,” her father replied.
As the elevator climbed higher and slowly emptied itself of lawyers, engineers, investment bankers, and pizza guys, Cynthia stayed plastered to her corner, quietly inhaling the lingering smell of pepperoni and mentally debating if she wanted them to turn around and see her.
They didn’t.
“I think I’m out of my league,” Rohit murmured when they finally reached Kumar Construction.
Her father chuckled as they stepped off the elevator. “I’ll coach you through it.”
Cynthia watched their departure as they made their way down the hallway to their offices. With their wide-set shoulders in dark, tailored suits and their short black hair, they could’ve been mistaken for father and son. They even walked the same: confident and with purpose.
“Did you need something, Cynthia?” Jilly asked from the front desk.
Startled, Cynthia stumbled out of the elevator. Jilly sometimes covered lunch breaks for the receptionist, and to have her assistant catch her slack-jawed and lifeless flooded Cynthia’s face with heat. Cynthia shook her head weakly.
“Are you sure?” Jilly was already half standing, her forehead wrinkling.
“F-fine. I’m fine.” Cynthia cleared her throat and managed a feeble wave before making a beeline to the safety of her quiet corner office.
There was no time to untangle the tightness knotted in her chest, however, because seconds after she took her seat behind the desk, Rohit breezed in and plopped himself in the chair across from her.
The cut of his black suit hugged his frame and emphasized his trim waist, but Cynthia couldn’t appreciate the perfect lines or the sexiness of Rohit’s open collar where he’d already ditched his tie because painted on the backs of her eyelids was their departing backs—her father’s and Rohit’s—and how they had looked, even to her, so similar despite not sharing any genes.
A match made in heaven. The son her father should’ve had instead of a daughter he couldn’t be bothered to understand. “Did you want to grab dinner tonight or…” Rohit trailed off when he got a good look at her. “What happened?”
Cynthia purposefully turned toward her computer and assaulted the spacebar to wake up the monitor. “What do you mean?”
Rohit’s eyes widened at the defensiveness in her voice but unlike before, he didn’t retreat with a departing shot about her being an Ice Princess. Instead, he leaned forward in his chair, worry flooding his eyes. “Cynthia. Tell me.”
“Can you close the door?” she asked, and when Rohit rose immediately to do her bidding, she tried to compose herself.
The ache in her chest clawing for freedom was not something Cynthia wanted to share with the entire office.
Learning how to be more human with her coworkers was one thing—vulnerability and angry crying were something else entirely.
When Rohit returned to his seat, Cynthia crossed her legs and tried to lighten her tone. “You and my dad were looking pretty chummy back there.”
“Back where?”
“In the elevator.”
Rohit’s raised his eyebrows. “Did you bug the elevators or something?”
Cynthia scowled. “I was in there, dummy.”
“You were? We didn’t see you.”
Although she had lived it, the words stung. “What a shock.”
“I’m sorry about that. It’s been a stressful day. Your dad asked me to present in front of potential investors today and—” Rohit stopped when he caught Cynthia’s answering scowl. “What?”
“You never mentioned that you were working on that.”
Rohit shook his head in confusion. “Do I need to?” When Cynthia’s frown deepened, his eyes narrowed. “What’s this really about, Cynthia?”
“Don’t you find it odd that since our efforts to boost morale around here, you’ve been busier than ever?”
Rohit shrugged. “Business is booming. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Maybe for you. My dad has been handing you projects left, right, and center.”
“You’ve been busy, too,” Rohit pointed out. “You’ve worked late both Monday and Tuesday of this week.”
At Rohit’s observation, Cynthia sat back a little in her chair.
Along with her newfound popularity at Kumar Construction, getting used to Rohit’s attention was also new ground for her, but she welcomed the light sprinkling of warmth it caused, fluttering from the pit of her stomach into her chest. It was an unfamiliar and new, but so pleasant that it made her want to wrap her arms around herself to preserve the feeling and keep it safe.
And then open her arms right back up to accept more.
“I’m the same kind of busy I’ve always been,” she admitted. She didn’t add that the return to hustling her ass off was tiring her out like it never had before.
“And didn’t you say, a few nights ago, that your dad had copied you onto that email with one of his high-end contacts?”
“Well, yeah.” But there hadn’t been much more after that.
“So…?”
Rohit’s obliviousness sharpened something inside Cynthia, and she sat forward again, careful to curb the steeliness in her voice. “ You’ve become my dad’s right hand.” Even more so than before.
“Didn’t your dad mention he had a special assignment for you at the last senior leadership meeting?” Rohit asked, his brow wrinkling as he thought back.
“Snacks.” Cynthia finished for him, her voice flat. “He asked me to coordinate ordering healthy, organic snacks for the break room as part of the wellness initiative we proposed.”
Rohit winced. “At least it’ll help you turn a profit with TeamStart?”
“Rohit.”
“Okay, it’s not great.” Rohit paused. Opened his mouth and then shut it, uncertainty flitting across his face.
“What? What is it?” Cynthia couldn’t disguise the reedy note in her voice, or the disgust she felt with herself for prodding Rohit for information about her own father.
She had had a lifetime with him, felt like she’d studied him for decades, and yet here she was, desperate to hear whatever insight she could glean from a guy who’d known Rich for sixteen months.
A guy who had the privilege of knowing her father behind the closed doors of daily coffee catch-ups.
Who shadowed him to big investor meetings and received the congratulatory clap on his oblivious shoulder for a job well done.
While she sat in her cushy, lonely corner office and excelled at the art of being invisible.
“Cynthia, you run your own show around here,” Rohit finally answered. “Your dad must look at you and think you don’t need the extra attention or the assignments.”
So Rohit thinks I’m alone and thriving, too. “Awesome.”
“I’m not just saying that. You’re the most self-sufficient person around here and everybody knows it.”
Rohit’s assessment should’ve filled her with pride, but she felt hollow.
Maybe she’d done too good a job, had orchestrated her own demise.
She’d been going above and beyond for so long, but the suggestion that she was beyond her father’s realm of praise and recognition failed to fill that hollowness.
From the depths of a place she wished would just dry out already, twin tears slipped out of the corner of her eyes, prompting Rohit to hurry to her side and crouch beside her. “Rani, what’s wrong?”
Queen. The combination of the endearment and Rohit’s proximity and earnest expression were too powerful for Cynthia. His hand was too comforting and too warm on her bare skin just above her knee and suddenly, Cynthia was too damn tired to keep her humiliating insecurities under lock and key.
“It just feels like he hasn’t seen all the hard work I put in with you over the last month. It’s like I wasn’t even here,” she said. The words were those of a lost little girl wanting a pat on the head, but Rohit’s gaze was soft with understanding.
“That’s bullshit,” he said. “There is no way we would have accomplished everything we did without you. And there’s no way your dad doesn’t know that.”
Glancing down at her lap, Cynthia fiddled with the hem of her dress. “If you’re sure…”
“I am. Just the other day, Leering Larry told me he was looking forward to your plans for off-site team-building activities.” Rohit paused to search Cynthia’s face, and when he spoke, his voice was cautious. “Do you want me to say something to him?”
“No,” she said quickly. “Definitely not.” Cynthia straightened her shoulders and tried to ignore the mortifying flush spreading across the back of her neck. Forcing a smile felt too fake and, knowing Rohit, he’d see right through it anyway, so she settled for levity.
“So Larry’s forgiven me for his two-year subscription to TeamStart’s life-changing smoothies?” she asked.
With a quiet laugh, Rohit moved his hand to clutch her free one, and, in a spontaneous gesture that both supercharged her heart and made her want to look away bashfully, he brushed a kiss across her knuckles. His lips were soft, his gaze worshipful, and Cynthia’s entire hand tingled afterward.
“Your dad knows your worth,” he said. “We all do.”